Auxiliary floor for railway-cars.



W. T. VAN DORN.

AUXILIARY FLOOR FOR RAILWAY CARS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 29. 1911.

1,259,935. Patented Mar. 19, 1918.

3 SHEETS-SHEET l- W. T. VAN DORN.

AUXILIARY FLOOR FOR RAILWAY CARS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 29. 1917.

1,259,935. Patented Mar. 19, 1918.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2- l7? vnfa'ix WQMMZWW W. T. VAN DORN.

AUXILIARY FLOOR FOR RAILWAY CARS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 29 I917- & m 3 1 T 0w n 1 w M u n a m P UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM T'. VAN norm, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, AssIcnOn T VAN DORN GIRDEB.PLATE COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF ILL NOIS.

AUXILIARY FLOOR FOB RAILWAY-CARS.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Mar. 19, 1918.

Applicationfiled December 29, 1917. Serial No. 209,417.

. useful Improvement in Auxiliary Floors for Railway-Cars, and declarethe following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same,such as will enable o hers skilled in the art to which it pertains tomake and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,which form a part of this specification.

My invention has for its object to produce a simple, novel andinexpensive construction and arrangement by means of which an auxiliaryventilated flooring becomes a permanent part of the car but, whennot-required, may quickly and easily be stored in the upper regions ofthe car and be securely held there; whereby the auxiliary floor willalways be at hand when needed and, when it is not needed, it will beheld out of the W y so as to permit the car to be loaded to its maximumcapacity and at the same time avoid the possibility of damaging theauxiliary flooring through contact with the contents of the car.

In carrying out my invention I make use of an auxiliary flooring whichis divided along the longitudinal center of the car in the same mannerasthe type of flooring now in use in which the sections are hinged atopposite sides of the car and are adaptedto be swung up against the sidsof the car, just above the main floor, when not in use. Therefore,viewed in one of its aspects, my invention may be said to have for itsobject to produce a simple, novel and inexpensive expedient for mountingauxiliary floors of this old type, either originally or after they havegone lnto use, in such a manner that when not in use they may quicklyand conveniently be stored in an out of the way place instead of takingup some of the most valuablespace in the car, as heretofore.

The general objects of my invention. are the same-as those set forth inprevious application Serial. No. 206,130, filed Decem-v ber 8, 1917, thesame or similar, ends being accomplished in a somewhat different andperhaps simpler way. Therefore, viewed in one of its aspects, myinvention may be said to have for its object to simplify and im- Pww anthe means shown in y aforesa d application for mounting sectionalauxiliary flooring so as to make it a permanent part of the car andpermit it to be stored in the upper regions Oflill car when not in use.-

The various features of novelty whereby my invention is characterizedwill hereinafter be pointed out with particularity in the claims; but,for a full understanding of my invention and of its objects andadvantages, reference may be had to the following detailed descriptiontaken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a View of a refrigerator car, partly in longitudinal sectionand partly in side elevation, containing my improved auxiliary flooring,one-half of the flooring being shown in position on the main floor ofthe car and the other half being shown stored out of the W y;

2 is a top plan view ofthe auxiliary flooring when it is resting on themain floor of the car;

Fig. 3 is a section taken approximately on line 33 ofFig.1; i I

Fig. 4. 's a section on an enlarged scale taken approximately on line 4lof Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is'a section taken approximately on line 5- 5 of Fig. 4; 4

Fig. 6 is a section on an enlarged scale taken approximatelyon line 6-6of Fig. 1, showing only the lower end of he auxiliary flooring and thelocking support;

Fig. 7 is a section, on an enlarged scale, taken approximately on line7-7 of Fig.

1,-showing one of the sliding-hinges;

Fig. 8 is a. section, on an enlarged scale, taken approximately on line8-8 of Fig. 1, showing one of the sliding hinges between the side of'thecar and one of the central auxiliary floor sections;

Fig. .9 is a view similar to Fig. 1, show-' ing a modified arrangement;and

, F ig. 10 is a transverse section through the car shown in Fig. 9, aportion of the, auxiliary floor being shown down and another portionbeing shown in its raised position.

Referring first to the construction shown in Figs, 1 to 7, 1 representsa railway car 7 having a floor, 2, side walls, 3, and end walls, 4. Anauxiliary flooring adapted to cover. the entire floor of the car is madeup of two end sections, 5, 5, each of which lies ad acentto one of theend walls of the car, has a length equal to. the width of the car, and awidth l t a seat an rreia'ebly g eat r t an tached to the correspondingwalls of the car in such a way as to be connected permanently theretowhile having capacity for swinging movements up against the walls of thecar and subsequent"vertical sliding movements to bring theminto theupper regions of the car. This is conveniently accomplished by placingineach end and side wall vertical guides, 7, there being atleast oneguide and preferably more, for each auxiliary floor section. Theseguides extend upwardly from points near the main floor of the car to anydesired height. interlocked with the guides, as best shown in Figs. 7and 8, are shoes or heads, 8, which can slide up anddown but are heldagainst displacement laterally of the guides. The end sections, 5, ofthe auxiliary flooring are connected to the corresponding guiding headsby suitable hinge joints, 9. are connected to the corresponding guideheads'by hinge joints which, as best shown in Fig. 8, permit relativesliding movements between the sections and the 'guide headslongitudinally of the car. In the arrangementshown, each of: the guideheads or shoes has a hinge knuckle, 10, through which passes anelongated pintle, 11, secured at its ends to the correspondingauxiliaryfloor section; The length of these pintles is equal to and preferablysomewhat greater than one-half the width of the ordinary side door of arailway car.

It will be seen that the connections be tween theauxiliary floorsections and the car are such as to permit the auxiliary floor *to restupon the car floor in the usual way.

\Vhen the car is to be loaded with other goods than those requiring theauxiliary floor, so that it is desirable to have theauxiliary floorremoved from the main floor of the car, the end sections are swungupwardly on their hinges so as to lie against-the end walls of thecarand are then slid upwardly along these end walls until their'upp eredges lie close to the car ceiling as shown at the right; hand end ofFig- 1 andin Fig. 3. Suitable means are provided for holding the endsections in these raised positions. lifter the end sections have beenstored out of the way, the four remaining sections. are movedlongitudinally so as to carry them out of the space lying between theopposed doorways, such movement being permitted by the elongated hinges,and each or these four seetions is then swung up agai-nst the side thecar-and slid upwardlvin the same manner as-the end 'sections. lnFig1-,'one oit th'esections, 6, in the r-ight'hand half of The auxiliaryfloor seotions, 6,

the car, is shown in its raised position While the corresponding sectionin the other end of the car still projects to the transverse center ofthe car, that is, halfway across the space between the doorways. Afterthe left hand end section, 5, in Fig. 1, has been I storedin the samemanner as the right hand end section, then the two left hand sections,6, may beslidtoward the left until the doorways are cleared, the raisingof these sections being then eliected in the same manner as in the caseof the other sections. v

The various auxiliary lioor sections may be held in their raisedpositions in any suit able way. I; prefer to provide suitable stationaryguides or ways which are grooved or otherwise constructed so as toreceive the vertical edges of each section as it is slid upwardly alongthe corresponding wall of the car; thus holding the raised auxiliaryflooring against the walls of the car and preventing them from tiltingoutwardly. This not only relieves the holding and supporting devicesthat may be supplied, but it protects the workman in that it insuresthat the only movement that an auxiliary section can make after it hasbeen started upwardly along the wall ofthe car, is an upward movementora downward movement. In the ar rangement shown, the guides or ways forthe four sections that fold up against the sides otthe earare indicatedat 13. They may conveniently consist of Z-bars as shown in 5, or takeanyother suitable form. The guides or ways for the two end'sections may besimple bars or cleats, 14, secured to the side walls ofthe car at adistance from the end walls equal to the depth or'thickness of theauxiliary floor.

Any suitable means may be provided for preventing the auxiliary floorsections from dropping down from their raised positions. In thearrangement shown, there are automatic locks, 15, distributed atintervals around the walls of the car in the plane of the lower edges ofthe auxiliary floor when the latter is in its stored position. One oftheselocks is shown in Fig. 6, comprising a spring held dog, 16,pivotally mounted in a recessed casting, 17,, set into the wall of thecar and tending normally to project outwardly and engage with the underedge of the-floor section when the latter is raised. The dogs yield whenthe floor sections are moved upwardly, so as to permit the latter topass, but alforol rigid supports for the lower edges of the floorsections after they have passedinto the position shown inv Fig. 6.Cllhelocking dogs'may be'swung into inoperative positions by means ofcombined unlockingand trip arms, 18, each pivotally connected to one'endof a corresponding locking dog; so that whenswung in the posi tionssliowii' iii-dotted lines in'Fi 6 it causes the'locking dog to "be swungback into the recess in the casting 17 and holds it there until thedescending floor section trips it and throws it back into the positionshown in fulllines in Fig. 6; the locking dog springing outwardly fromthe dotted line position to the full line positionas soon as the upperend of the floor section has passed.

In the arrangement illustrated in my aforesa'i application, the exposedface of the auxiliary sections, when the latter are in their storedpositions,is-that which forms the top surface of the auxiliary floorwhen the auxiliary floor is resting on the main floor. This is becauseeach floor section is folded or rolled through three-quarters of acomplete turn. In the present arrange ment the rolling or folding isthrough only a quarter of a turn and therefore the exposed face, when asection is in its stored.

position, is the bottom side of the section instead of the top side.Consequently, in the present arrangement, the stringers or beams onwhich the floor slats are secured are exposed when the auxiliaryfloor isin its stored position. For the purpose of bracing the floor stringersor beams and providing a comparatively smooth exposed surface orfacewhen the auxiliary floor is stored in the top of the car, I securecross pieces or slats, 20, on the under side of the floor stringers orsills,21, these slats being preferably countel-sunk as best shown inFig. 5, so as to lie flush with the bottom edges of the beams or sills.v

In Figs. 9 andlO I have illustrated an arrangement which avoids the useof the long pintledhinges which permit the main sections, in thearrangement previously de scribed, to be slid bodily longitudinally ofthe car.- The end sections are entirely eliminated and. in the spacebetween the (51001 ways, is placed a short auxiliary floor section, 25,which may be disposed of in any suitable way when not in use as, forexample, just beneath the ceiling in the centerof the car as in myaforesaid application. Between the doors and each end of the car I thenplace a plurality of sections divided at the longitudinal center line ofthe car'in the same way as the section 6 in the arrangement previouslydescribed. In the arrangement shown, there are in addition to thesection 25, four other sections, 26, each of these sections extendingcompletely from the central loose section 25 to one end of the car andfrom one side'of the car to the longitudinal center line of the car.connected to the side walls of thecar in precisely the same way as arethe end sections in the other form of my invention. That is, the

sections 26 are permitted to rotate through.

a quarter turn in order to bring them flat against the sides-of the car,and then to travel upward by a sliding movement to bring them into theupper regions of the 2. The combination with The sections 26 are car;thcguides 7, guiding members or heads tachments for connecting auxiliaryfloor sec-. tions to a car as permanently as has heretoforebeen thecasewhere the floor sections have been simply hinged so as to fold-upagainst the sidesof the car and, in addition, I am enabled to keep theentire valuable lower regions-of the car entirely clear when theauxiliary flooring is not required; this being accomplished by fixturesand attach ments including very little more than those that have beenrequired for simple hinged flooring. p 7

While I have illustrated and described only a single preferred form ofmy invention, including a single modification, I do not desire to belimited to the exact structural details thus illustrated and described,but intend to cover all forms and arrange ments which come within theterms employed in the definitions of my invention constituting theappended claims.

.I claim: 1

1. The combination with a car, of a loose auxiliary floor section andflexible connections betweensaid section and the car permitting the sameto reston the floor of the car and also to be swung. up flat against awall of the car and slid upwardly into'the' upper regions of the car.

auxiliar'yxfioor section, flexible connections between said sect on andthe car permitting the same to rest onthe floor of the car and also tobe swung up flat against a wall or also to be swung up flat against awall of the car and slid upwardly into the upper re-' a car, of a loosegions of the car, and stationary guides for receivingthe side edges ofsaid section when the latter is in its raised position.

. a The combination with a car, of a loose auxiliary floor section,flexible connect ons between said section and .thecar permitting the t0rest on the floorof thecar and also to be swung up flat against a wallof the car and slid upwardly into the upper regions of the car,stationary guides for receiving the side edges of said section when thelatter is raised and holding it against said wall, and movable supportsfor said section adapted to prevent it from dropping from its raisedposition.

5. The combination with a car, of a loose auxiliary floor section lyingadjacent to a wall of the car, a member interlocked with said wall so asto be movable in the vertical direction from a position in the vicinityof the floor'of the car and be held against movements in otherdirections, and a l'iinge connection between said member and theadjacent edge of the said floor section.

6. The combination with a car, of a loose auxiliary floor section lyingadjacentto a wall of the car, a member interlocked with said wall so asto be movable in the vertical direction from a position in the vicinityof the floor of the car and be held against movements in otherdirections, a hinge connection between said member and the adj acentedge of the said floor section, and means vtor locking said section fiatagainst said wall when said section is swung upwardly on its hingeagainst said wall and then moved upwardly parallel with said wall.

7; The combinationlwith a car, of a loose auxiliary floor section lyingadjacent to a wall of the car, a member interlocked with said wall so asto be movable in the vertical direction from a position in the vlcmityor the floor of the car and be held against, movements n otherdlrections, a hinge connection between said member and the adjacent edgeof the said floor sectlon, stationary vertical gu1des constructed andarranged to interlock with the vertical edges of said floor section whenthe latter is swung upwardly about its hinge so as to lie flat againstsaid wall and then moved upwardly along said wall. 7

8. The combination wlth a car, of a loose auxiliary floor section lyingadjacent to a wall of the car, a member interlocked with said wall so asto be movable in the vertical direction from a position in the vicinityof the floor of the car and be held against movements in otherdirections, a hinge connection between said member and the adj acentedge of the said floor section, stationary vertical guides constructedandarranged to interlock with the vertical edges of said floor sectionwhen the latter is swung upwardly about its hinge so as to lie flatagainst said wall and then moved upwardly along said wall, andautomaticilocks arranged in posi tion to engage with said floor sectionafter the latter has been raised along said wall to apredeterminedheight and prevent the same from dropping down.

9; The combination with a car, of twov loose floor sections extendingtoward each other from opposite sides of the car and meeting at thelongitudinal center line, and means for supporting each of said sectionsso as to permit it to be moved bodily in the vertical direction with oneedge maintained in proximity to the corresponding side wall of the carand to swing angularly about that edge.

10. The combination with a car, of a loose auxiliary floor section, andflexible connections between the said section and an adjacent wall ofthe car for permanently securing said section to the car and permittingit to be swung upwardly through a quarter turn about its edge adjacentto the car and then to be slid upwardly along said wall.

11. The combination with a car, of a loose auxiliary floor comprisingend sections in proximity to the end walls ofthe car and intermediatesections, flexible connections between the end sections and the endwalls of the car permitting the sections to be swung from a position ofrest on the floor of the car flat against the end wallsand he slidupwardly along the end walls into the upper regions of the car, andflexible connections between the intermediate sections and the sidewalls of the car constructed and arranged to permit the intermediatesections to be shifted bodily in the longitucar adjacent to said sideand overlapping said doorway, and flexible connections between saidsections and the car permanently connecting the two together andpermitting said section to be moved longitudinally of the car far enoughto clear said doorway and to be swung up against the side of the car andslid upwardly along said side into the upper regions of the car.

13. The combination with a car having a doorwayin the side, a looseauxiliary floor section adapted to lie upon the floor of the caradjacent to said side and overlapping said doorway, and flexibleconnections between said section and the carpermanently connecting thetwo together and permitting said section to be moved longitudinally ofthe car far enough to clear said doorway and to be swung'up against theside of the car and slid upwardly along said side into the upper regionsof the car, said connec tions being constructed and arranged to preventthe edge of the floor section next to car floor adjacent to said walland overlapping said doorway, a vertical guide secured to said wallabove said auxiliary'fioor section, a guiding head interlocked with saidguide and movable up and down the same, and a hinge connection betweensaid guiding head and said floor section constructed and arranged topermit said floor section to be shifted bodily in the direction of thelength of the car a suflicient distance to bring it clear of the doorwayand to be turned upwardly against the side of the car.

15. The combination with a car, of an auxiliary floor section adapted torest on the floor of the car adjacent to a wall thereof, and a hingeone-half of which is permanently connected to said wall so as V to becapable of sliding up and down while interlocked with the wall againstmovements in other directions, the other half of the hinge being securedto said section so as to hold it at all times with one edge near saidwall and at the same time permit it to beswung upwardly against saidwall and be i moved bodily up and down with the hinge. a

the sections against the car walls, and means for holding the sectionsup after they are raised. 7 1 r In testimony whereof, I sign thisspecification.

WILLIAM T. VAN DORN.

copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner. of Patentl,

Washington, D. 0.

